


It's (Finally) Halloween

by alsointogiraffe



Category: Social Network (2010) RPF
Genre: Fluff, Halloween, M/M, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-29
Updated: 2012-10-29
Packaged: 2017-11-17 07:43:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alsointogiraffe/pseuds/alsointogiraffe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> He gets mugged on Halloween two blocks away from his apartment by a man in a skeleton mask.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's (Finally) Halloween

He gets mugged on Halloween two blocks away from his apartment by a man in a skeleton mask. He loses his wallet, phone, and all sense of feeling around his thigh thanks to the numbing medicine for the stitches where the guy's knife slipped. Jesse thinks the knife wasn't meant to slip and that the person mugging him was clearly a beginner. He doesn't tell the police this because he doesn't file a report at all. Not even a beginner would mug him again. He's not a memorable face, which is why he was mugged to begin with, and if he were put in that kind of situation with the same guy, all he'd have to do is say, "Hey, yeah, you've already mugged me, okay? There's nothing left to take except maybe a little bit more of my dignity." The truth is, even that's already gone since he had to strip down to his underwear following the event in front of several medical professionals in order to get the stitches on his thigh. 

So, really, there's nothing else for the guy to steal, at which point he could just leave Jesse alone or kill him. Jesse likes to think that, since the guy's obviously a beginner, he'd hopefully apologize and leave Jesse alone. Worst-case-scenarios should be avoided, even if getting mugged was kind of a worst-case-scenario from his trip to the pharmacy for candy on Halloween. He didn't realize that trick-or-treaters would actually stop at his apartment or that there would be a robber waiting around the corner in a cliche, dark alley on his way back. These things just happen.

It's around nine that he's allowed to leave the hospital. Unfortunately, he's halfway across town and he doesn't have his wallet to pay for a cab, or his phone to call for a ride. He loses a little more dignity when he borrows a nurse's phone. The only person in the city that he can think to call is his neighbor, whose number he'd only accidentally memorized. It was an accident, really, mostly because it sat on his counter for three weeks as he tried to work up the guts to text it. He never did, but he figured 646-555-8642 couldn't be doing anything too important at nine at night on Halloween. It's not until Andrew, his neighbor, is picking up that Jesse realizes it's nine pm on Halloween in _New York City_ and that he's probably the only person _not_ doing anything too important. It's too late though, because from the other line, Jesse hears a chipper "Hello?"

"Um. Hi. This is Jesse from next door–"

"347!" Andrew exclaims. "It's nice to hear from you, finally! Happy Halloween!" Jesse can practically hear the exclamation points attached to the ends of Andrew's sentences and tries not to wonder whether or not he's drunk. It could go either way, considering Jesse remembers hearing exclamation points the one time he actually talked to Andrew in person. Andrew is attractive and Jesse didn't pay as much attention to the other, probably more important details about him, like whether he spends Friday nights partying or is a heavy drinker or knows where the hospital is that Jesse is calling him from.

"Right, happy Halloween," Jesse says. "I was hoping you could do me a favor. Are you busy right now?"

"No, not at all," Andrew says, his voice curious. "Why?"

Jesse doesn't exactly know the best way of explaining what happened to him over the phone so he says, simply, "I was hoping I could get a ride."

"Of course!" Jesse can hear the clatter in the background, and the jingle of car keys and a door shutting before there's silence and Andrew asks, "Um, it would probably help if you told me where you are?"

"Oh! I'm outside Lenox Hill."

"Is that a bar?" 

"It's a hospital," Jesse says, and suddenly feels awkward. He adds, "I'm not drunk. Just wounded."

Andrew goes on to laugh and mention something about rescuing him in sixteen minutes if his GPS system is being honest and traffic is reasonable. He hangs up and Jesse sits down on a bench and tries not to think about anything. Like usual, he fails. 

Seventeen minutes later, Andrew shows up and actually walks around to the other side of the car and opens the door for Jesse, ushering him into it. "It's forty degrees out here and you're wearing a t-shirt?" he asks, walking back around to the driver's side and getting in. Jesse is still shivering, trying not to make it noticeable, but Andrew cranks up the heat anyway. 

"I didn't exactly anticipate having to spend time outside, thank you."

"Sorry about that," Andrew says. 

He pulls away from the curb and Jesse contemplates how _sincere_ he sounds for a minute before saying, "Wasn't your fault."

"What happened?" Andrew asks and adds, "If you don't mind telling me, of course."

"Oh, uh, well–I was mugged on my way home from buying candy for the trick-or-treaters. And the guy wasn't very good at robbing people, because I _think_ he was trying to scare me with his knife, but he ended up slicing me in the leg with it."

"That would certainly explain the blood," Andrew says. 

Jesse looks down and remembers he's still wearing his pants from during the attack, which now have a hole exposing thankfully nothing more than a bunch of white gauze. Even so, the blood stains are still present and Jesse says, "At least I don't need a costume now. This is scary enough, right?"

"Absolutely," Andrew says. He asks a moment later, "Did they take anything? Besides what was probably a perfectly good pair of pants?"

Jesse shrugs and says, "Phone and wallet. Neither was worth much."

"Did you at least go to the cops?"

Jesse actually laughs and says, "No. Of course not. The guy was wearing a skeleton mask and there have probably been a hundred robberies in the area tonight by guys with the same description. Like I said, the stuff he took wasn't worth much. He'll be pretty disappointed."

Andrew laughs again and, a few minutes later, is pulling into their apartment's parking lot. They both get up and Jesse, starting to feel the numbing medicine wear off (seriously? So soon?) almost falls over, not from the pain, because it's not that bad, but from the sheer surprise of feeling anything at all. Andrew quickly runs around to his other side and grabs his arm even though he'd already steadied himself. He deadpans, "My hero," which makes Andrew laugh eagerly. He guides Jesse (who argued against any help vehemently, despite almost falling a second time when attempting to take the stairs instead of the elevator) up to their floor.

He asks Jesse once they've arrived, "Would you like to come over to my place for a bit? I've got lots of leftover candy and maybe some tea and an icepack for your leg."

Jesse, deciding he doesn't want to be the only person in Manhattan not doing anything important on Halloween night, smiles and says, "Sure," and follows Andrew inside.


End file.
